8/19/11

The Trap (on-sale August 23, 2011) is the second volume of The Magnificent 12, a most excellent fantasy adventure series for young readers by Michael Grant. The first book, The Call, was one of my favorites of 2010--fast paced and laugh-out loud funny-- utterly spot on for its target audience (my review). It was a pleasure to help short list it for the Cybils Awards.

And so I have been awaiting The Trap with keen anticipation, as has my 11 year old son, and now we've read it! Yay!

Here's the blurb: "Mack MacAvoy already answered The Call. Now he must assemble the Magnificent Twelve and avoid The Trap if he’s to save the world from the wicked Pale Queen. But time is short--the Pale Queen’s banishment ends in 35 days and she will be free to destroy the world! Can Mack assemble the Twelve and avoid The Trap?"

The Trap continues the excitement of The Call in fine form--I can guarantee it is a page turner, not only because I have read it myself, but because I have watched my son devouring it before I had a chance to--"It's even better than the first one!" he says. Here's the browse inside widget, if you want to preview it for yourself.

And now, on to the details of the Blog Tour:

To join the adventure, read along as Michael Grant introduces characters new and old from the world of The Magnificent 12 and gives sneak peeks at their adventures in THE TRAP. Each post will also reveal a clue about a worldly location the Magnificent Twelve visit in THE TRAP. Follow Michael Grant and the characters to each blog until you’ve discovered all eight locations. At the final stop on the blog tour, enter all eight locations to win a signed copy of both MAGNIFICENT 12 books!

And so, without further ado, it is an honor and privilege (although a dangerous one, given the sort of girl she is) to bring you Risky!!!!

"Princess Ereskigal, known as Risky to her friends, if she had any, is drop-dead gorgeous. She’s got red hair, green eyes, and an eerie, unworldly beauty that just draws you to her. Unfortunately, she’s also evil. Totally evil. Completely, ruthlessly evil. In THE TRAP, she’s out to stop Mack and the Magnificent Twelve, who are out to stop the return of her mother, the wicked Pale Queen, after a three-thousand-year banishment that will end in 35 days, when she will be free to destroy the world. Got that? Risky = Bad. She sure is nice to look at though, just ask Paddy “Nine Iron” Trout."

Clue: THE TRAP location #3: People say you can see this Chinese monument from space. We’ve never been to space, so we can’t say for sure if that’s true, but it’s definitely HUGE. For a bonus point, build a model of this monument out of 1 million Popsicle sticks. (Note: We lied again. No bonus points. But we’ll help you eat Popsicles if you want.)

Clue: THE TRAP location #2: With 9,999 rooms, this is the world’s largest surviving palace complex. For 9,999 bonus points, memorize a map of this place. (Note: We lied--there aren’t any bonus points. But if you still want to memorize a map of 9,999 rooms . . . you’re crazy.)